A Day Of Service: Belmont Places Community First at Annual Event

A participant of Belmont Serves, the day of service held on the Columbus Day holiday, said she can remember only a single cloudy day on the day the yearly event fell on the calendar.

"It's the way it should be," she observed as she was clearing invasive weeds away from the entry to Rock Meadow Park on a brilliant Monday morning, Oct. 14.

"Nice weather should accompany good work," she said. 

She and other residents gathered in the Winn Brook Elementary School's cafeteria Monday to take part in the fifth-annual community service day sponsored by the Belmont Religious Council as a way to bring the town's diverse religious groups and residents together to help the town and its residents.

With the final day of the new Joey's Park "community build" underway adjacent to the school, several families decided to split their day by working the first two hours spreading mulch at the park and then driving specific routes to gather shopping bags filled with donations heading to the Belmont Food Pantry.

While smaller in the number of projects and people then previous years, the commitment "is always impressive," said John Robotham from St. Joseph's Church who is the Council's treasurer. 

Between a rock and a meadow

With wheel barrels and shovels, volunteers tackled a dirt mountain in the parking lot at Rock Meadow Conservation Land off Mill Street. The job was to fill in all the areas that turn to puddles when the rains come. 

David Webster was supervising about 20 "great" volunteers who were helping out on all the tasks and "getting a lot done" including bagging up weeds such as bittersweet so they won't spread and removing saplings encroaching on the meadow.

"Rock Meadow has been one of the projects that has been on the list since the start five years ago," said Webster. And while the number of participants are down due to the popularity of Joey's Park, "we're doing a lot of work so people can see what a treasure we have here," said Webster. 

On the path along Clay Pit

Not so far off the beaten path along the shore line of Clay Pit Pond adjacent to Belmont High School and Concord Avenue, Nancy Davis led her group of volunteers in rejuvenating the shrubs by giving them a good whacking.

"We do that by taking out about a third of the plant each year during this time ... allowing the plant to grow new shoots and look new again," Davis said.

"That way we can get rid of these overgrown monstrosities that collects trash that are not only unsightly but unsafe," Davis said, now in her third year doing this work along the pond. 

Maybe next year with more volunteers, said Davis, the group can reach the pond's bank.

"But it's a beautiful day and a great crew of volunteers of all ages. It's terrific," she added.

A tower of donations for Belmont's pantry

Before the first bag of donated groceries arrived Monday morning, Belmont Food Pantry Manager Patricia Mihelich cleared all the shelves from the pantry's second storage room.

"I wanted to see just how much we would be receiving today," she said.

Mihelich was not disappointed with the results.

Within four hours, the room's shelves were stacked with canned foods, dry pastas, jars, boxes, mixes and toiletries.

And there was still a small hill of grocery bags filled by residents who set their donations – teams left thousands of donated bags at homes midweek to be used – by their front doors and stoops earlier in the morning.

At its height, cars and SUVs were backed up on the road behind Belmont High School where the pantry is now located and a chain gang formed to pass the bags one person at a time into the two rooms.

"I was so impressed with the number of donations this year," said Mihelich, who figured between 2,000 and 2,100 bags had been brought in, nearly equal with last year's number.

Belmont Serves is the pantry's largest single donation of food and sundries in the year and will allow the nearly 100 Belmont families (or about 1,400 family visits a year) that rely on the biweekly donations to have the basics and something extra from now until after the holidays, said Mihelich.

"Today will allow families to celebrate the holidays," she said.